Tech center provides EMT pipeline

Monday

Feb 18, 2013 at 11:40 AMFeb 18, 2013 at 11:56 AM

Program takes step toward national accreditation

Taylor Muller/@TaylorMullerKDE

The Adair County Ambulance District has established a recruiting pipeline in its own backyard, with nearly all of its medical responders graduating from the Kirksville Area Technical Center’s program, a program that recently took a step toward national accreditation.

The tech center and its paramedic program was granted a provisional accreditation status with a letter of review from the national governing medical responders committee in late December.

The tentative approval means that just as in years past, the tech center’s paramedic program students will be allowed to take the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians exam with the program meeting all of the stringent national eligibility requirements including core curriculum, classroom and field experience.

“The emergency medical services industry is evolving,” said instructor Troy Mihalevich, also with ACAD. “One area is the education front and they’ve made it a requirement any program that graduates paramedics, they have to receive Committee on Accreditation of Educational Programs for the EMS Professions approval.”

The nation’s programs were put under the microscope ahead of a January 1, 2013 deadline where each program must have accreditation or a letter of review for its graduates to proceed forward.

“A letter of review is a big step, it allows us to put on another program and guides us toward accreditation,” Mihalevich said.

The next group of students, already considered EMTs, will enter the class this spring and pursue their advanced EMT certification and paramedic status.

“A paramedic is an advanced EMT,” Mihalevich explained. “They’re able to do a great deal more than an EMT.”

With both an EMS and EMT program at the tech center, ACAD has recruited about 90 percent of its first responders from those graduates in the area, ACAD Administrator Larry Burton said last week.Mihalevich agreed, saying the opportunity to watch the students as they learn and develop and eventually graduate allows ACAD to recruit high-level EMTs.

“I think about this region and the ambulance services in the region and how we have a lot of EMTs and paramedics working out there who have been through the program and how almost all our people are from there,” he said. “We’re seeing value at all levels. It’s neat to be able to teach students and get to know and identify if you want someone working here.”

The letter of review will remain valid through the 24-month program that starts this spring with a class of about 10 to 15 students. In the near future, the governing accreditation committee is expected to begin site visits and more intensive inspection toward to goal of full accreditation.

“This is a process we’ve been working on for the past few years,” said Vicki Cooper, community education supervisor with KATC. “And it’s only because of the groundwork laid by Troy [Mihalevich] and many others.”

The KATC has been offering the initial EMS class since 1991 and began offering its EMT class a year later.

Interested students can still apply for the two-year program by April 1. Classes start April 29 and admissions requirements include a current EMT-B license, background check and successful completion of pre-admission testing.